September 03, 2004

"I don't know anything, I've been in class all day."

-- Ardith

I hope that pearl of Ardith Wisdom (TM) won't be the tone-setter for the coming semester, but I thought it was extremely funny.

The first week of school is over. I have now had at least one full session of each of my classes, and I am very optimistic indeed. My schedule runs a little something like this:

>M-W-F, 2:35-3:30 -- History of the English Language (HotEL) with Dr. Watson (the esteemed). Friendly Faces: Martinez, Dr. Watson

HotEL may sound boring, but . . . not gonna be. There will be much happy learning going on, and Watson shows "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "My Fair Lady" in that class.

>T-R, 9:30-10:50 -- American Literature I with Dr. Olson. Friendly Faces: Gallagher, Randy

I'm already pretty happy with this class because Dr. Olson is really cool. She read "Coyote Juggles His Eyes" (Native American Folk Tale) out loud to us in the last class. Also, Randy and Gallagher and I have signed up for the group presentation on Poe and Melville. It will be difficult to do really well, but we'll have fun with it.

>T-R, 1:30-2:50 -- 19th Century Europe (Age of Empires) with Dr. Kubricht (the shameless). Friendly Faces: Wilson, Ashley

In spite of the large numbers of ignorant, raving, technical majors (Quote of the week: "Why would they name a hurricane after France?!" UGH!) this class just has to be good . . . the subject matter can't fail. And there's always Kubricht to subtly (and blatantly) make fun of everyone.

>T-R, 3:00-4:20 -- Journalism and Publications with Col. Payton. Friendly Faces: Randy, Bryan

I liked Speech when I expected to hate it, and Payton is a good guy. I expect to enjoy myself in this class, and maybe even learn to write something worth reading. Maybe.

>R, 6:00-9:00 -- HNRS World Literature Through Film (WLTF, mate?) with Dr. Solganick (the painful punster). Friendly Faces: Wilson, Gallagher, Martinez, Ardith, Randy, Moore, Scott, Sharptiano, Barbour . . . etc.

*jumps up in down in ecstatic glee* Speaking of "can't fail" . . . We'll be reading excerpts from the following and watching the movie versions in class: Gulliver's Travels, Faust, Eugene Onegin, Madame Bovary, The Brothers Karamazov, A Doll's House, and Heart of Darkness. Of course, in the case of that last we'll watch Apocalypse Now. In addition to watching these, there will be much opportunity for further formal training in writing essays about movies, plus actual writing practice. And if all that weren't enough, we get to focus our collective brains to the task of a battle of wits with Solganick. Who will break first, the teacher or his "HNRS" students . . .? I can hardly wait to find out.

All this to say . . . Bring it on, fall semester. As of now, I am ready for you.

Posted by Jared at September 3, 2004 09:51 PM | TrackBack